


The One With The Scary Halloween Decorations

by GeckoGirl89



Category: Friends (TV)
Genre: Alternate Season/Series 10, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Arachnophobia, Established Relationship, F/M, Ficlet, Fluff, Halloween, Humor, Silly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-21
Updated: 2016-10-21
Packaged: 2018-08-23 20:38:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 616
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8341924
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GeckoGirl89/pseuds/GeckoGirl89
Summary: Joey tiptoed into the apartment, wielding a frying pan in his right hand like a sword.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by prompt #624 on otpisms on tumblr (http://otpisms.tumblr.com/): _Person A decorating the whole house with spooky decorations and Person B actually being scared by the plastic witches and zombies._ I changed the premise a bit for the purposes of this fic.
> 
> Also, I'm ignoring the breakup in 10.03 (TOW Ross's Tan) for this fic.

Rachel swept her gaze around the living room in satisfaction. With Monica’s assistance, she had been able to give the apartment a spooky atmosphere perfect for Emma’s second Halloween. Emma stared at the decorations in wonder from her swinging play chair and curiously raised her hand toward the fake spider webs hanging on the far wall.

Joey entered the apartment. “Hi, babe.” He greeted her with a light kiss on the lips like he normally would, but as he drew away from the kiss, his hands, which were resting lightly on her shoulders, tightened to a nearly painful grip. Rachel looked at her boyfriend in confusion, but he was staring with wide, fearful eyes at something behind her. His gaze shifted to Emma, and a determined expression crossed his face. He quickly moved away from Rachel, gathered up Emma, and placed her in Rachel’s arms. He clasped Rachel’s upper arms and stared at her with a very serious expression. “Hold onto Emma. I’ll be right back.” He glanced warily again at something behind Rachel and practically fled the apartment.

Rachel was too baffled by Joey’s bizarre behavior to do anything other than hold Emma. She frowned as she heard Joey banging on the door to Monica and Chandler’s apartment and what sounded like muffled shouting from Joey and Monica. What the hell was going on?

Before Rachel could wonder about Joey’s behavior too long, Joey tiptoed into the apartment, wielding a frying pan in his right hand like a sword. Joey’s strange impression of a knight with a frying pan only increased as he lifted his left hand protectively and urged Emma and Rachel backwards. He turned to Rachel with a nervous expression. “Did they move at all?” he whispered.

Rachel had no idea what Joey was talking about. “Did what move?”

“The evil spider monsters about to eat you and Emma!”

Rachel burst into a fit of giggles, and Joey appeared exasperated with her. “This isn’t funny, Rach! Those giant spiders could attack at any minute!”

Rachel eventually managed to stop laughing at her boyfriend’s panic over the “giant” spiders, which were about the size of the tarantula Phoebe once brought to the apartment. “The spiders are plastic, Joey.”

Joey lowered the hand clutching the frying pan and seemed to deflate like a balloon that had all of the air let out. “Oh, I, uh, didn’t know that.” His face screwed up with embarrassment.

Rachel grinned teasingly. “I could tell.”

Joey pouted and glared disapprovingly at the fake spiders. “Still, I don’t know why you’d have up those things around Emma. She could have nightmares about the creepy spiders crawling all over her!” Joey shivered as he seemed to imagine bugs crawling on him.

Rachel shook her head. Her boyfriend was clearly the one who would have nightmares, not her daughter. To spare Joey’s pride, she refrained from saying anything. “You’re right. I’ll get rid of the spider decorations.”

Joey sighed with relief. “Wouldn’t want to scare Emma.”

Rachel nodded, playing along with his pretense. “Exactly.” She returned Emma to her swinging chair and strolled back over to Joey. “First, I’ll return Monica’s frying pan.” She smirked “Think you can watch Emma for a minute and protect her from the big, bad plastic spiders?”

Joey sheepishly handed over Monica’s frying pan and looked at Emma with concern. “Of course. I’ll keep her safe.”

Rachel felt a swell of affection for her sweet, silly boyfriend and pecked him on the cheek. “I’ll be back soon.”

As Rachel left the apartment, she decided to give the spider decorations to Phoebe. From now on, spider decorations were obviously not going to be a part of her Halloween celebrations.

**Author's Note:**

> Crossposted on my tumblr here: http://geckogirl89.tumblr.com/post/152125176140/the-one-with-the-scary-halloween-decorations.


End file.
